ABSTRACTS 1986
Exhibition
Exhibition
OIGÅLL PROJECTS presents a focused exhibition of abstract works on paper by Sidney Nolan, produced in 1986 during a late, experimental phase of the artist’s practice.
Departing from the iconography that has come to define his legacy, these works return to a more fundamental impulse: abstraction as a site of testing. Executed in spray enamel, pigment is atomised and dispersed into the air, settling in layered veils—colour suspended, colliding, and resolving beyond full control.
Forms emerge and withdraw. Edges dissolve. The compositions hold a sustained tension between precision and contingency, between intention and the behaviour of the material itself.
Rather than peripheral, this body of work occupies a critical position within Nolan’s practice—where experimentation is not relinquished with maturity, but sharpened by it.
Presented as a cohesive group, the works feel both historically anchored and unexpectedly current in sensibility.
In parallel, OIGÅLL PROJECTS invites BMDO to produce a series of objects in response.
Expanding on their material led practice, BMDO introduces new upholstery and soft material elements alongside vitreous enamel—glass fused to steel through intense heat. This shift extends Nolan’s enquiry into material transformation across both rigid and pliant states.
Where Nolan’s pigment is airborne, BMDO’s material is subjected to pressure, heat, and gravity. Enamel liquefies and bonds; textiles absorb, resist, and hold form. Surfaces bleed, compress, fracture, and settle, each outcome shaped through calibrated instability.
These works do not illustrate Nolan. They operate in parallel, translating a shared logic of dispersion, layering, and chance into three-dimensional form.
The exhibition draws a line between practices separated by discipline but aligned in method: a commitment to material intelligence, and a willingness to let process exceed intention.
Departing from the iconography that has come to define his legacy, these works return to a more fundamental impulse: abstraction as a site of testing. Executed in spray enamel, pigment is atomised and dispersed into the air, settling in layered veils—colour suspended, colliding, and resolving beyond full control.
Forms emerge and withdraw. Edges dissolve. The compositions hold a sustained tension between precision and contingency, between intention and the behaviour of the material itself.
Rather than peripheral, this body of work occupies a critical position within Nolan’s practice—where experimentation is not relinquished with maturity, but sharpened by it.
Presented as a cohesive group, the works feel both historically anchored and unexpectedly current in sensibility.
In parallel, OIGÅLL PROJECTS invites BMDO to produce a series of objects in response.
Expanding on their material led practice, BMDO introduces new upholstery and soft material elements alongside vitreous enamel—glass fused to steel through intense heat. This shift extends Nolan’s enquiry into material transformation across both rigid and pliant states.
Where Nolan’s pigment is airborne, BMDO’s material is subjected to pressure, heat, and gravity. Enamel liquefies and bonds; textiles absorb, resist, and hold form. Surfaces bleed, compress, fracture, and settle, each outcome shaped through calibrated instability.
These works do not illustrate Nolan. They operate in parallel, translating a shared logic of dispersion, layering, and chance into three-dimensional form.
The exhibition draws a line between practices separated by discipline but aligned in method: a commitment to material intelligence, and a willingness to let process exceed intention.